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As Summer Approaches, Eat These 5 Plant-Based Foods To Help Fight Sun Damage

Summer is coming up! As much as many of us love to go get a golden tan on the beach, we may also want to protect our skin, the largest organ in our body, from the harmful UV rays. While we can lather on sunscreen and hide under an umbrella, our skin can still be damaged by the unforgiving sun rays. You might like your freckles and golden tan, but they often come at a cost… wrinkles, skin discoloration, and in more severe cases, skin cancer.

So the most comprehensive way to protect our skin is from the inside out. This means ingesting antioxidants that can help protect against harmful sun rays. Antioxidants work to counteract free radicals and oxidative damage from the sun, reversing the damage already done to our skin.

And the best foods to obtain these phytonutrients from are our dear friends, plants. Phytonutrients provide plants protection from UV lights. By ingesting these plants, these compounds end up in our tissues, providing us with a lot of the sun protection benefits we need. Here are the top 5 plant foods that offer natural sun protection benefits:

1. Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are great sources of beta-carotene, which our body converts to vitamin A. Beta-carotenes act as potent antioxidants, protecting cells from oxidative damage which accelerates aging and causes diseases.

Sweet potatoes are also a good source of vitamin C, which fights free radicals and protects our skin. According to Reader’s Digest, British researchers found that vitamin C–rich foods reduced the risk of wrinkles by 36 percent.

You may have to boil or steam your sweet potatoes to obtain the nutritional benefits. Recent studies show excellent preservation of sweet potato anthocyanins with steaming, and several studies comparing boiling to roasting have shown better blood sugar effects. And yes, add some olive oil to your sweet potato to absorb the beta-carotene better. The best part is, sweet potatoes can protect your eyes given its high vitamin A content.

3. Tomatoes

Tomatoes are very high in lycopene, which can protect our skin against sun damage and cancer. According to BBC, about 85 percent of lycopene in the western diet are obtained from tomatoes, and the best place to find it is in tomato paste.

Adding to this, a recent study published in the Journal of British Dermatology showed that tomato paste containing lycopene provides protection against photodamage from the sun.

5. Green Tea

Green tea also contains polyphenols, which protects your skin against free radical exposure and boost its antioxidant protection. Drinking two or more cups of either black or green tea may reduce the risk of developing skin cancer.

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Mel, thanks for your message. It depends on the type of sunscreen. Some may be bad, but if you weight the damage from sunscreen vs. damage from UV rays, I\'d take the damage from sunscreen, unless you can avoid all UV rays completely...